The Haircut
by eating salad at the beach
Summary: After 600 years without one, Rain gets a haircut.


While the two of them were comfortably shaded from the hot afternoon sun in their own home, both Rain and Machika felt out of place.

Methuselah died months ago, leaving the couple in peace. No more bounties to catch and no more bounty hunters to hide from. Rain was the one who had the idea to settle down—he had been a wanderer for 600 years already. Machika thought the idea was cute, but fretted because neither of them had a skill set that could make them sustainable money. After long debate, they settled for opening a flower shop that has been more than successful for them, after all, who wouldn't want to marvel at the man who used to be immortal.

Sitting beyond the storefront, in the luxury of their own home, they averted each other's gaze. They sat on the floor, Machika looking at her hands resting on her knees. Rain, with a nervous laugh, gazed at the door to the shop. It was Sunday and they were closed. Machika finally looked at Rain and croaked.

"Are you ready?" She asked.

"As I'll ever be," Rain replied with a lack of conviction, "Let's go."

Machika left her spot warmed by the sun and grabbed a pair of scissors from the kitchen drawer. She returned, handing them to Rain with a more than apologetic look on her face. She loved him, but she just couldn't love a man with that much hair. Rain was getting pretty sick of it too. While it was the hair that had been on his head for 600 years, it was getting in the way of his newly enjoyed domestic life. He often tripped on it, the light silver blending with the light beige linoleum of the flower shop's floor. He took a deep breath and held Machika's hands in his own. He looked more distraught than in all the times people have attempted to end his life and try to take his immortality.

"Promise we'll get through this together," He whispered.

"Rain, it's only hair. It grows back. Besides, you could use a new look."

"Machika," he trailed off.

Rain took the scissors from her hand and took a huge chunk of hair from the side of his head, right behind his ears. Three feet of hair fell in a single swoop. He looked as the disembodied hair and choked up a bit. He could feel Machika's hard gaze on him. He sighed and grabbed another handful. Rain held his breath as he cut the rest of his hair off.

Machika ran her hand through Rain's hair while planting her lips on his forehead.

"See? Was it that hard?"

Pale gray hair surrounded the couple like pool of water. Rain went to grabbed Machika's hair, hoping to steal a kiss from her lips afterward, but her hand moved to fast. She held the locks still attached to his head between her fingers, and closely inspected the rest of his head.

"Hold on, we can fix this," She affirmed.

Rain didn't even know what was wrong before it was too late. His haircut came out uneven and choppy, but still fit his sharp looks. Machika took the scissors from next to him and crawled on her hands to position herself behind him. She started cutting off the uneven ends, polishing his hairdo. Between Machika's attentive and delicate snips, Rain hummed a song he heard from the radio on Eury's motorcycle.

Half an hour later, Machika's masterpiece was complete. Though Rain cut several feet off, his hair still remained long for a man's, only a bit past Eury's length, however, because of Machika's lack of domestic skill, he now rocked something more akin to Justin Bieber's length. Machika looked at her work and made a harsh sneer. She put the scissors down on the ground and handed a mirror to Rain. He couldn't believe his eyes when he saw what he lost. How much did his hair weigh anyway? His eyes widened and he whipped his head and turned to face Machika. As he quickly turned himself (much quicker than if he had four feet of hair on his head), Machika managed to squeak "sorry," but not before Rain grabbed her by the shoulders and kissed her. As soon as their lips met, his exploded into a huge smile. He held Machika out at arm's length and beamed.

"Wow! Machika! Thank you! Thank you so much! This is amazing, Machika!" He laughed with glee and added "Machika! You should grow out your hair! If I can look this cool with short hair, just think how amazing you would look with longer hair! Machika!"

Machika wanted to apologize again, but she was cut off by Rain's embrace. He hugged the air out of her. He kissed her over and over again, only stopping to shout "thank you!" and admire his new found freedom.

They continued giggling until Machika put her hands up in front of her face, blocking a kiss. Rain looked confused, but waited to listen to her. She smiled.

"We'll finish later, but we have a mess to clean up."

"It can wait!" Rain chuckled, and pushed his lovely Machika to the floor, where the two of them rolled around and laughed until the afternoon sun set beyond their home.


End file.
